As Fallout Season 2 debuts, Todd Howard addresses a New Vegas misconception that Bethesda hates the RPG — "Huge respect for the folks at Obsidian"

As I write this, Season 2 of Amazon's Fallout TV show is just a few short hours away from its official premiere — and with the new episodes featuring the iconic city of New Vegas as their prominent, primary setting, a lot of attention has naturally fallen on Obsidian Entertainment's acclaimed 2010 RPG Fallout: New Vegas.

Like Fallout Season 2, New Vegas takes place in and around post-nuclear Las Vegas, and is notable for arguably being the most popular of all the Fallout games in terms of player reception. Many applaud its deep RPG systems, complex faction narratives, branching questlines, and emphasis on total player freedom, and consider it a cut above titles like Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 that were made by Fallout's primary studio, Bethesda.

Because there weren't many references to New Vegas, its events, or what it added to the series' lore in the developer's games, some in the Fallout community believe that Bethesda hates or resents Obsidian's RPG for being generally more well-liked by fans. There's never been any proof of this, mind, but the idea still took root as fans debated which Fallout games are better, and it's persisted over time.

Speaking with PC Gamer, though, Bethesda director and executive producer Todd Howard has now addressed this infamous misconception that the studio keeps New Vegas "at arm's length," making it clear that the two developers are on good terms and that there's no truth to the whispers.

"Huge respect to the folks at Obsidian. Had them out to the set to see [Fallout Season 2]. And they've had an incredible year, if you look at the year they've had," Howard said, referencing Xbox and Obsidian's release of Avowed, Grounded 2, and The Outer Worlds 2 throughout 2025.

"But again, this is something we asked them to do, right? And so, they just did an incredible, incredible job on the game," he added.

A few moments earlier in the interview, Howard discussed how New Vegas ultimately came to be, and seemed to speculate that the source of this misconception were "factions" of fans engaging in discourse about which Fallout games are better.

"Well, look, when we went to do that game [New Vegas], we were coming off of Fallout 3. We knew we were going to do Skyrim. We know the folks at Obsidian well, love their work. And so, you know, reached out to them and said 'Hey, would you like to do this? We see something else coming off of Fallout 3,'" he explained.

"So I just find it — I think fans debate what their favorite one is, which is understandable. I think it's great that you can have, we'll call it factions in the fans," Howard continued. "'Oh, I like 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or Vegas or 76 now.' And so, I think that's really healthy for a franchise where people can say which one is their favorite."

Frankly, I've always found this idea that Bethesda shuns New Vegas to be ridiculous, and it's unfortunate that negative disinformation like that tends to spread like wildfire — resulting in misconceptions like this one that ultimately have no actual proof behind them.

It's good, then, that Howard has addressed it directly, and hopefully this will be the end of it (though there will inevitably be some that vehemently believe he lied for the camera, because of course there will). I mean, Bethesda is heavily involved with the TV show that just made New Vegas Season 2's main location. I think it's safe to say this assumption is unfounded.

Note that every Fallout game — including New Vegas — is available to play through Xbox Game Pass, either on Xbox consoles or on PC.

Follow Windows Central on Google News to keep our latest news, insights, and features at the top of your feeds!